The implication of not knowing exactly how many species there are is that we can't tell if we are actually making progress on the 2010 target.

Every time we lose a species webreak a life chain which has evolved over 3.5 billion years.

In general terms, I think with increasing human populations we will inevitably see an increase in conflict between humans and wildlife.

The border controls that used to be available are now only at the port of entry.

Some people who study insects think there may be as many as 100 million species out there.

Europe is probably doing better than most continents in protecting diversity but is not yet doing enough.

Every expedition that goes into a place that hasn't been examined before finds new species.

What we can measure is how hard we are trying. Measures of effort may be a more useful indicator than estimated rates of species loss. For example, we can measure the number of new protected areas being established and ask if they have sufficient budgets.